On 28-29 June, the APLE Collective met at Frimhurst Family House for its first in-person meeting since the beginning of the pandemic with fifteen participants who had travelled from Scotland, Yorkshire, London, and elsewhere. Below, Miles Goring writes about his experience at this event.

I represented LIFE, a newer member of the collective and this was my first opportunity to meet my Zoom buddies in person! And we included our members on Zoom who were unable to attend in person.

I found this exciting: connecting with new people, sharing perspectives and discussing how we saw the APLE Collective growing in 2021-22.

We laughed, sighed, constructively disagreed on aspects; yet by being able to chat through everyone’s thoughts, we produced a really clear vision where we could all contribute our wisdom and experience together.

We applied our agreed values to each discussion, and sense checked things, and found we were on the same page, which was so inspiring.

In summary, the venue was great and the hospitality second to none. With my personal thanks for this opportunity and invitation to be part of something special.

 – Miles Goring

Above: Aimee displays the award APLE received from the UK Parliament for Digital Campaigner of the Year 2021.

Above: Dylan displays the award given to him by APLE for his energetic and creative work maintaining its website and social media.

Above: Tracey faciltates a socially distanced small group designing a “river of life” to represent APLE’s projects.